


The Royal Test

by Hawkflight



Category: RWBY
Genre: Ambushes and Sneak Attacks, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Kidnapping, Paralysis, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-10
Updated: 2019-07-12
Packaged: 2019-10-07 16:55:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17369801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hawkflight/pseuds/Hawkflight
Summary: Ruby Rose had taken his tail, so he was going to take something of hers, of equal value.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is going to be my first dark!rwby fic. As such this is rated E for later chapters and their contents which will be tagged when each chapter is published, if applicable so you'll know [somewhat] what you're getting into. This is also a bit of an AU with the timelines, but starts around the end of V6E8, so minor spoilers ahead if you're not that far. I hope you enjoy this rather deranged story with me.

"Oscar!" Weiss called while surveying the streets for their lost companion.

"What Jaune said must have really gotten to him." Blake was frowning as they walked side by side.

Yang was with Ruby, mainly because Blake had insisted Weiss came with her. Probably to continue to avoid that talk they should really have, the one about how Blake left soon after the Fall of Beacon. To be fair, Weiss had left soon after as well, it just hadn't been her choice. And she wished she had been able to stay instead, a sentiment she hoped Blake shared if her and Yang were ever going to get over the past and start trusting each other like they used to.

"He was angry, just like we all were when we first heard the truth. It was expected."

"Then we should have stopped Jaune from getting physical with him. It's not Oscar's fault and Ozpin won't talk to us as it is. We need his advice more than ever." Blake let out a sigh as she stopped in the middle of the sidewalk.

"I know." Weiss stopped beside her, raising an arm to rest a hand on her friend's shoulder. "But we need to find Oscar first. We'll figure out how to get through to Oz later."

Blake had her fingers pressed to her temples, rubbing at what she could only assume was a nasty headache from the look on her face. "Except he doesn't even know how to win the war we're in. If that woman can't be killed then she needs to be kept prisoner somewhere, a place where she can't break free. But how do we make something like that when we don't even understand her capabilities?"

Weiss squeezed lightly at her shoulder. "Ironwood was one of the people Ozpin trusted. I'm sure he's been working on something that would help us."

"We can hope, but that doesn't mean it'll be that easy." Blake's hands fell away from her face, eyes scanning the streets once more and Weiss' gaze followed hers. Her heart sunk a little when she didn't recognize the few people out as the young farm boy from Mistral.

He was only missing for over an hour, but it made her nervous. While he didn't hold any information himself he was a catalyst for one of two people that had been at Remnant's birth since the beginning. As crazy as it all was, magic was real and with that being the case there  _had_  to be some way to defeat Salem - even if it didn't necessarily kill ker. If it came down to it they had one last question for Jinn they could use. The problem was finding the right question to ask.

She glanced up, seeing the stars twinkle in the sky, the broken moon hovering over them... a street light flickering before dying completely and leaving her and Blake in a light blanket of darkness. Something hit her hard a second later, and she watched as Blake went flying sideways into the same alleyway as her.

Weiss gasped when she hit the concrete, gritting her teeth a second later as she pushed herself up and grasped at her weapon.

"Don't be so hasty now."

A boot came flying at her head and she ducked away, letting out a shout a second later when another appendage hit her wrist, causing her to drop her rapier and roll away.

" _Quiet_ ," the voice hissed, sending a shiver down her spine from the sheer animosity it possessed. Both boots filled her vision and she looked up to see a cloaked man, concentrating for a second so a glyph appeared when he tried to kick her again. Something he hadn't expected from the flash of frustration in his golden eyes.

"Hah!" Blake launched herself at their attacker, gambol shroud flashing in the moon's light as she struck at the chest area. There was another glint right before they connected though, what looked like a pair of blades were holding hers' back, and then surging forward. The man shoved Blake right up against a wall and then another pair of blades hit the faunus square in the stomach.

Blake doubled over from the impact, only being supported by the wall and the other pair of blades keeping her pressed to it. His left arm drew back and then forward first, his arms exchanging the blows, one always left to keep Blake affixed to the wall and then striking at her again and again within seconds until her aura broke from the abuse.

Weiss forced herself back up to her feet, extending a hand to cast another glyph to stop the next blow from connecting with its target. And the man stopped, seeming to freeze for a moment before his head tipped towards her, as if just remembering she was there.

"Miss Schnee," the voice hissed, eyes flashing once more, but this time they weren't gold. A pair of teal eyes gleamed at her. "You're coming home with me."

Before she could respond there was a metal gleam in the air, not a blade, but it nicked Blake in her left shoulder and the girl visibly winced before he pulled his other arm back and she slid down the wall to lay at his feet.

"I'm not going anywhere with you." Weiss snapped back, not even chancing a glance at her weapon after seeing how quickly he dispatched Blake from the fight. She would never reach it in time before he got to her. She had only seen it for a second, but he had another weapon on him besides the blades, and it moved a lot quicker.

The man seemed to snort at her words as he took a step toward her and she preemptively took a step back. "I'll give you a choice. Come quietly and I won't touch a hair on your friend's head. Or make this hard and I'll skin her alive like the animal she is."

A cold breeze seemed to pass through her at those words. There was no doubt the man meant what he said, but there was no guarantee he wouldn't hurt Blake even if she did go with him without putting up a fight. Besides that, she didn't  _want_  to go with him. At the very least she could get the others to Blake's location so he didn't have time to do such a gruesome thing. If he was really being paid by her father he should prioritize getting her back to Atlas, anyway.

Weiss' curled her hands as she took a step forward, in the next second her right hand was extended to put up a glyph in front of her, while her left hand flew back to her pocket where she kept her scroll. Her fingers activated it, turning it on from memory and frantically moving across it as she tried to remember exactly where the distress signal was.

And the man was already moving the moment she stopped approaching him, as if turning herself over. His blades met her glyph, but she held it in place as he giggled on the other side. She saw that same metal gleam from the corner of her eye, but then she felt something wrap around her waist and yank her forward so she crashed into her own glyph, her scroll slipping from her fingers to tumble to the ground.

With her concentration broken it shattered on the impact and she had begun to scream when a blade was pressed to her throat, cutting off the sound as she felt her aura struggle to stay intact. The man was as close to full out laughing as one could get with all his sniggering, but not quite loud enough to be considered such. "Are you done, then?"

Weiss opened her mouth to say something when the air was knocked out of her, her aura broke and she was left gasping, not sure if he had hit her with his blades or simply kicked her.

"Go to sleep, Miss Schnee."

The coil around her waist seemed to tighten and there was a single prick at her neck, seconds later her vision went blurry, her arms falling lifeless at her sides as she couldn't even tremble in the man's grasp.  _I can't move._ The sound of Blake sputtering out a few coughs were dulled when they reached her ears. And finally her vision went black: two little white orbs dancing in the darkness.


	2. Interlude

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This should give you a taste of what's to come.

"I'm sorry. I didn't get a good look at him. Everything just happened so fast-"

"Hey, it's okay," Ruby said, trying to assure her teammate - and herself just a little bit. "You said you couldn't move after he broke your aura?"

"No. I tried, but my body just wouldn't respond." Blake reached for her cup of tea, raising it to her lips for a drink before continuing, "He said he was taking her home with him."

"Do you think he meant Atlas?" Jaune asked, still not looking at Oscar, partly from his own guilt of the situation. And there was nothing she could do about that. Ruby wanted to comfort her friends, tell them that neither of them were at fault for what happened, but they wouldn't believe her. Jaune was kicking himself three-fold for getting into an argument with Oscar, blaming him for putting them in a battle they may very well not be able to win. But it was Ozpin he was angry at, Oscar had nothing to do with that.

She still found it hard to believe that Weiss was gone, kidnapped by some bounty hunter. Possibly. There had been no evidence of where she could have gone when they got to the alley after receiving the distress signal.

"Maybe-"

"What were the exact words?' Qrow interrupted his niece, eyes practically burning a hole through Blake as he stared at her, anger swirling within the depths. Like he... he... Ruby felt a shiver run through her. He didn't really think it could be anyone else but Weiss' father did he?

Blake nearly dropped her cup of tea at the sharp tone of his voice. "He just said her name-"

"How?"

"'M-miss Schnee.'" Blake's ears lay flat on her head as she responded, "'You're coming home with me.'"

A moment of silence followed before Jaune turned to him. "Was there something weird about the phrasing?"

"No." The way Qrow said that single word, though... It was in defeat, pure and simple. "But it's too much of a coincidence to assume it was just someone wanting the reward money from her father. Not to mention how they attacked Blake and Weiss." His gaze lowered to the floor. "It had to have been one of Salem's cronies."

"But why would they take Weiss? Ruby is the one with the silver eyes. If they could get someone to take a few of you out that fast then she should just send them to slowly pick you guys off one by one. Fighting fairly clearly hasn't worked for them in the past."

"I see your confidence in us is staggering," Jaune muttered the words so lowly - so grim - that Ruby almost didn't hear them.

"They never fought fair to begin with." Qrow practically snarled at Maria for her comment.

"Perhaps in the Battle of Beacon they didn't. But compared to that they haven't tried to outnumber you since. Nor have they gone after you when you were split apart like this before. If you're so insistent that it's Salem why would she have only one group targeted? Why not have someone grab Oscar since he was alone? Unless they didn't know about Oscar being Ozpin and vice versa. It's entirely possible it's one of Salem's 'cronies' as you put it." Maria's fingers formed little quotation marks in the air as she spoke. "But if it is they acted on their own. Besides, with no evidence there's no way to know for sure it wasn't someone that just wanted some quick cash and felt Blake was an obstacle to that goal. You catch my meaning?"

"Maria's right." Ruby said before her uncle could respond with another snide comment. "It doesn't matter who it was right now. Not without more information anyway. We're heading to Atlas, so if Weiss is there we'll find her. If not... we'll get to that bridge when we cross it."

Ruby swallowed down the lump in her throat, ignoring the cold clutch at her heart, the fear it harbored inside for Weiss. It was clear she was no longer in Argus, but they were heading North, just like their enemy. So there was a fair chance they would run into her. She just had to keep hoping for the best scenario, no matter what crawled at the edge of her mind.

She turned from the others, disappearing out the back door to get some fresh air.

**~ / ~ / ~**

The ground vibrated beneath her fingers, slowly but surely jostling her awake and into a state of panic. " _Blake_ ," her companion's name came out in a hoarse whisper rather than a shout, feeling like nails on her vocal chords. Her throat was drier than a desert.

Weiss glanced up, blinking until the black spots faded from her vision so she could see clearly. Metal walls surrounding her, still vibrating, cold iron chairs attached to the wall... it certainly reminded her of home. She was no stranger to Atlas aircraft, having used her own personal carrier to get to Beacon, but this one was unsettling somehow. She could feel the hairs on the back of her neck start to rise as her breath quickened, eyes darting around the interior for a door, either to the cockpit or the hanger. One or the other would work, as long as she could wrestle control of the vehicle or simply get out-

Her breath faltered, a shiver running down her spine when violet eyes stared back at her. A man was perched on one of the metal chairs, looking at her like a cat would a mouse. And then she heard the faint sound of giggling that made a tremor run through her body as her eyes traced the path of his curved tail bending and unbending behind him. That's what it was, what had grabbed her back in that alley, what had thrown her off so utterly... The prick she had felt must have been from the tip. He incapacitated Blake and then her.

A scorpion faunus. Hadn't the others mentioned running into one on their way to Mistral?

"My father didn't send you."

"Nope." The man replied with a grin, fingers curling around the arms of the chair as he leaned forward, toes gripping at the edge of the seat, still giggling.

She tried to gather some saliva in her mouth, to gulp down and ease the burn in her throat, to make her voice not scratch so much when she spoke. Instead her stomach twisted and she dry heaved, coughing and spluttering against the floor as the man tipped his head to the side, watching her with a little smile.

"Side effect of the poison I'm afraid. A larger dose would be far more fatal. I've seen seasoned hunters cough up their intestines until they choked on them." Another giggle.

Weiss couldn't tell if he was telling the truth or simply embellishing it, but the imagery was enough for her to force a hand to her throat. To clamp her mouth shut and breathe through her nose. In and out, in and out, slowly until her vision came back into focus. Until she could manage to get to her feet, letting her hand fall to her side as she watched him, still perched in his seat. His long braided hair dangling off the side of the metal, styled in such a way it looked eerily similar to his tail. The one she could have sworn Ruby told her had been cut off during the battle.

But that made sense, didn't it? Given that it was made of metal at a certain point rather than... what it had been before. "Salem pieced you back together?"

His eyes narrowed, turning gold as he stared back at her, quiet. Too quiet. She didn't remember that being one of the things Nora and Ren had used to describe him.

Then his lips parted, teeth glinting in the curves of his maw. "Maybe she'll put you back together once I've torn you  _piece by piece_."

She took in a breath, trying to stop her body from trembling at the threat. Weiss inched her foot backward, glancing sideways at a window, but she could only see the waves of the sea rolling below, no land in sight. Gone. Just like her weapon, and he was fast,  _insane_  from what her friends had said - his tone of voice, the way he moved; her mind screamed that he had far more than a few screws loose and she - the unfortunate soul she was - had his full attention.

"If we're not going to Atlas... where are you taking me?"

His smile was more of an answer than she ever needed, but he spoke the words she had been dreading once she realized who he was. "You're going to meet the one and only living goddess in the world, pet. It should be rapturous."

And just like that her body wouldn't stop shaking, she couldn't rid her skin of the cold that had taken ahold of her as she put one foot behind her, and then another, walking backwards until she hit the wall. A dull thud echoed in her ears as his fingers uncurled from the chair, reaching down to the floor so slowly, so agonizingly slow as she stood there, heart racing in her chest.

This was like something out of a nightmare. Even more so than that town she had found herself in, with the...  _apathy_. It felt like she couldn't move again, like any action would take too much effort... like... What was the point? She knew already that he could take her in a fight even with her weapon, what was she suppose to do without it? Scream for help? He had taken Blake out in  _seconds_. Not to mention her... If not for Qrow he probably would have grabbed Ruby back in Mistral; her friends mentioned barely being able to keep up with him. And she didn't have an uncle to come to her rescue.

His feet met the floor, giggling once more as he started crawling towards her, tail almost playfully swaying side-to-side. Like a dog, a very creepy  _deranged_  dog.

Why was he so focused on her? Why did he come after her in the first place? That's what she didn't understand, but there  _had_  to be a reason. He couldn't have just decided to grab her for fun when he was unable to get Ruby. It didn't make any sense. He could have easily taken Blake with them, another victim for Salem. So why not?

Why did he keep laughing to himself?

" _Stop_."

She didn't expect him to freeze as if she had just hit the pause button, but his eyes still followed the tremors in her body. As she slowly lifted her hands to cover her eyes, to stop the black blurs from forming into more solid shapes, to stop the red eyes from looking back at her, before she remembered that screeching that sent her crashing to her knees each time, suddenly unable to move.

Her leg twitched, slamming into the wall behind her, sending a wave of pain up her body. Had her aura really not kicked back in yet? Was that another side effect of his poison?

Weiss pressed the back of her calves right up against the wall, forcing her eyes open to see Tyiran still posed there as she lowered her hands to her side, looking at her perhaps a bit... curiously? Wonderful. She was the lab rat.

Her body hadn't stopped trembling. His movements were too similar to those  _things_. And how on earth was she suppose to fight without an aura? If she had any chance at getting out of here she needed her glyphs at the  _bare_ _minimum_. This simply couldn't be happening. She had been in Argus... an hour ago? No, it had probably been longer. This couldn't be happening.

She bolted to the left, nearly slamming herself into the wall in her haste to get away from him - around him. Her feet carried her for another yard or two before his tail wrapped around her leg, pulling her down to the floor with a definitive  _whack_  as her head collided with the metal. She yelped, throwing her arms in front of her face as she turned on her back and kicked at the hand she saw reaching for her. Without another thought she rolled back onto her stomach, pressing up against the floor as she hobble-crawled across the floor, reaching up to grasp the door to the hanger, gasping for breath when a white cloth filled her vision for a second.

And was pulled back quickly to wedge into her open mouth just as she let out a wail, falling back to the floor when a foot connected with her gut. She managed to protect her head this time, but felt a hand wrap around her wrists and wrench them behind her back a second later as she felt the tears begin to skim down her cheeks.

He was quick to secure the rope around her wrists as she wriggled on the ground, kicking back at where she thought he was, hoping to kick him where it would hurt the most. Up until he secured another rope around her thighs and she ceased moving, just crying into the cold hard steel beneath her, trying to get the words 'let me go' out from her sealed mouth.


	3. Chapter 1

Weiss was staring at the floor, tears flowing in a never-ending cascade down her cheeks.  _This couldn't be happening._ She had muttered the words over and over when her muffled shouts for release had only been met with laughter, occasionally a remark of how she was being too loud. That she would scare the pilot.

It had taken her a second to process those words, until she realized the man or woman in the cockpit was probably being forced to fly wherever they were going - or being paid. Either way she couldn't see this man letting the person live once they got to their destination. He had just needed a way to get her out of Argus after all, and with that city's strict policy on flying she was beginning to doubt that they had left there immediately after the incident in the alley. So the question became: just how long had the poison put her out for? She could have sworn she remembered Blake begin to move again right before she became unable to. It didn't make any sense.

She found her teary gaze flickering to the man that had situated himself in the corner. Tyrian. Weiss remembered the name now, having nothing else to do but recall her conversation with Jaune, Ren, Ruby, and Nora about the mysterious faunus. It had done nothing to quell her nerves, just make her wish she wasn't in such a compromising position. That she had managed to open the hanger door.  _But then what?_ Her mind nagged at her. She just would have been caught in the hanger instead of here, practically hogtied until she was incapable of moving effectively enough to make a run for it. To be honest, she hadn't even tried since then, even with her aura starting to come back. She would still need to use most of it to get out of her bindings in the first place and then it would be just like before, a race to see who got to the door first. Beyond that she still needed to get the hanger open, then hope they weren't flying over the grimm infested sea, otherwise there was nowhere for her to go. But the cockpit perhaps, and she didn't know how to fly; another dead end.

Escape was pointless to think about, at least for now, she tried to reassure herself. There had to be a way to get back to Ruby and the others, she just hadn't found it yet. Because the opportunity hadn't presented itself. That's all. She just needed to be patient and wait for it.

She blinked the last of her tears away, wanting nothing more than to get rid of the wet feeling on her cheeks, but the rope around her wrists were still tight and she couldn't move her hands from her back without some serious wiggling, which was sure to draw the faunus' attention. A silent sigh traveled through her body, her gaze back on the metal floor.

Even though she knew there was nothing she could do. How could she just sit here? Knowing she might end up walking into hell fairly soon. Granted, she didn't know why Tyrian had grabbed her. They could end up asking her questions or torture her, or just kill her on the spot to send a message. That was the worst of it.

A cold dread had fallen over her since Tyrian had bested her a second time.

She just didn't know what to expect and that fear kept gnawing at her, creeping into the corners of her mind until it was all she could think about. Weiss had run away from Atlas, her own father and for what? She couldn't uphold the Schnee legacy from a glorified jail cell.

What was she suppose to do if... if it was already too late. If she missed her one chance to get out of here? A fresh tear slid down her cheek and she squeezed her eyes shut to stop anymore from following. No,  _no_ , the last thing she wanted to do was just sit here and cry. Just as she began to take deep breaths to calm herself down, try to push such thoughts from her mind-

She felt a pair of fingers wrap around her chin and jerk her head up. Her eyes snapped open to stare at the faunus towering over her. "Don't stop now. We're just getting to the good part."

 _What?_ "Hrnf?" she tried to get the question out of her lips, knowing full well it wouldn't make it out, but hoping she could convey it anyway.

The only answer she got was his hand slipping from her chin and down to her throat, tightening a moment before lifting her up and she saw a glint in his eyes right before she went sailing across the room. Weiss hit the wall with a muffled scream, back arching away from the surface that had just bruised it. She landed on the floor a second later, choking on the feeling of his fingers being there a moment earlier, paired with the wind being knocked out of her and tried gasping for air around the cloth in her mouth. Suffice to say it wasn't very effective.

Her gaze flickered back to Tyrian, who was grinning as he approached her, slow and methodical just like before. He wasn't worried about her fighting back, was he? He must know her aura was coming back, otherwise his sudden attack made no sense, he wanted to deplete it again. So she couldn't struggle once they landed... which meant they should be landing soon, right?

This was it, then.

Weiss summoned a small glyph behind her back, pleading to the gods that had abandoned this world that he wouldn't notice the glow until it was too late. Just a few more seconds-

And her little Arma Gigas cut through the ropes binding her wrists. Her eyes narrowed as she urged it to get bigger, faster, as Tyrian paused in the middle of the room, head cocked to the side.

That's when her summon sprung up behind her, no longer tiny, but big enough to nearly take up the whole room as it swung it's sword at Tyrian. The faunus blocked the sword with his tail, staring at her for another second before exploding into laughter. "How unexpected of the little snowflake. Let's see how you hold up to the rose."

A chill had run down her spine, but she snapped into motion. Weiss quickly brought her arms from behind her back, evidently surprising the faunus again as he laughed even harder, starting to fight the Arma Gigas as she removed the gag from her mouth, untying it with her fingers and spitting the thing out onto the metal floor. She undid the rope at her thighs next, pushing herself up to face the door of the hanger and fling it open, trying to not pay attention to the sounds of her summon and Tyrian fighting right behind her. She ran in, slamming the door shut behind her and made a beeline for the far side of the room to jab her hand against the button. Her foot tapping against the floor the whole time the door slowly slid up, glancing back when she felt the loss of the Gigas a few seconds later.

"Come on, come on." Weiss dropped to the floor, scurrying forward beneath the hanger door, grasping onto the edge of the vehicle as she pushed herself so her upper body was outside, glancing down she saw  _earth_  rather than the sea and breathed a sigh of relief. Now she just needed to gauge how far down the fall was, how much aura she would need to use to catch her fall. She was nearly at the end of what little she had recovered.

A hand fell on her ankle, wrapping around and pulling her back from the edge. She spun around with a scream, kicking furiously until he let go with a snarl, hand retracting. Weiss pushed herself back up, heart racing in her chest as she ran back to the edge with the full intent of jumping off and just praying for the best when she felt something wrap around her arm and try to tug her back once more.

A glyph appeared beneath her feet, stopping her from being dragged, but now she was hanging partially out of the bullhead, one foot hanging on the edge, the other still planted firmly on the metal floor. She whipped her head around to glare at the faunus as he approached her, tail tightening even further against her arm, tugging even harder, but her glyph held her in place.

"Stubborn, aren't you?"

"Let me go!" she shouted, wind whipping around her. Even so she could hear his giggle from within the darkness.

"I think not, princess." He tugged at her arm again and she yelped, glancing down as her glyph flickered, feeling her heart skip a beat. She needed that to get down from this height safely and he was breaking it down again with pure force. "You've had enough fun for the day. You need a timeout."

Weiss gritted her teeth, inching her back foot forward along her glyph, trying to slide it up to the edge without being thrown off balance. Was he really talking to her like she was just a bothersome child? As if she had gone off to play in the mud and was now refusing to get out? "I told you to let me go! If you didn't grab me because my father asked you to then what business do you have with me!?"

His laughter seemed to carry through his whole body, his tail vibrating slightly against her arm before he looked back up to her, pretending to rub a tear from one of his golden eyes. "Did no one tell you about me, little girl?"

"Of course they did! You're fucking insane! You work for Salem, your self-proclaimed Goddess!" she yelled back, still trying to tug her arm out from his grip, but it was like having her hand stuck in the maw of a crocodile.

"No, not that." He gave another tug on her as he stepped closer. "What I had taken from me."

"Taken?" the question slipped past her lips with little thought to the answer. She was far more preoccupied with getting off this aircraft with minimal bruises, but from the growing pain in her arm that was becoming less likely.

"Yes,  _taken_ ," he sneared, closing the distance so he was almost standing on her glyph. "The little rose used her thorn to take my tail. So I'm taking  _you_."

A shiver crawled down her spine, her heart beat faster in her ears as she started to tug back more frantically. She screamed when all it did was make the tail start digging into her arm, she nearly fell forward when her glyph shattered beneath her, earning another terrified scream from her as her one leg crumpled beneath her, the other foot slipping off into empty air. " _No, no, no, no_." she whispered, staring down and suddenly realizing all the jagged spikes below... the... the...  _what was that?_

There was a dark pool in a crevice, the surface rippling like that of an ink well. Beneath it something was pushing up, making the ripples expand before they popped, and two points of red looked up, meeting her gaze as a long red tongue lulled out of it's mouth. Claws slid up and along the edge of pond, dragging the creature up from the thick goo that slid along it's flesh, black and just as slimy; glimmers of white bone surged up as it's spine breached the surface, causing her to gasp.

A grimm? She didn't recognize it from what she learned in Beacon, but there was no doubt in her mind. A grimm had just crawled out from the earth and it was now looking around it's surroundings, glancing up once more to see her,  _feel_ her emotion in the air, but unable to reach her it simply slinked away into one of the surrounding caves.

Her blood had run cold and she wasn't sure when it had started, but her entire body was trembling,  _no_ ; it was shaking violently as she teetered on the edge, tears sliding down her cheeks. Where had he taken her? She squeezed her eyes shut, but her breath just came quicker, heart racing in her chest. There was no way this was real, right? This all had to be a bad dream, a never ending nightmare.

She could feel his presence behind her, leaning in until his breath trailed along her ear, "Did you still want to be  _let go_?"

Weiss shook her head and with a giggle he pulled her back into the hanger, the door sliding shut, blocking her view of what was happening below.

**~ / ~ / ~**

Ruby let out a sigh as she sat down on the back deck, bringing her hands together in her lap, interlacing her fingers so they wouldn't shake so much. While it was true it could have been a mercenary that merely thought Blake was in the way the fight she described seemed too brutal for someone that was simply tagging and bagging. Like Qrow said, it was too coincidental for someone to get interested in the reward money now.

No one had approached them at the station in Mistral when they left and no one had said anything for the time they had been in Argus either. Until now, that is. It really didn't make sense, especially since Raven's bandits first thought when they found her was to ransom her back to her father. If they had heard he was looking for his daughter and wanted her brought back to Atlus... why had no one else taken the bait?

The other thing that was bothering her was why they even bothered to take Weiss. If it really was Salem or one of her 'cronies' why didn't they just finish Blake off and kill Weiss afterward? It would certainly have hurt their morale. She had no doubt such an act would have shaken her whole team to its core. It was already difficult thinking of what lay ahead of them without losing even more of her friends. She was happy Blake was safe,  _really happy_. But Weiss... she didn't even know where to start looking for her.

The door behind her slid open, causing her to jump a little from the sudden sound. Ruby glanced over her shoulder to see Oscar sliding the door back in place before turning to her and offering a little smile before sitting down next to her.

He was quiet for a few seconds.

"The others are finally going to bed. They started arguing again after you left, about Weiss... and about the relic. We need to take it to Atlas before we can even look for her, don't we?"

"Yeah." She hadn't even really thought about it, but there was no way they could go running after Weiss, straight for Salem carrying one of the relics she so desperately wanted. They had to keep the lamp away from her at all costs, even if that meant being unable to go after Weiss. Even if it meant leaving her with the person that had taken her longer than she was comfortable with. Wherever she was.

Ruby hoped it wasn't Salem, but it being a possibility meant they couldn't do much, not right now. It pissed her off. but at the same time... Her fingers clutched around each other as her entire frame started to shake. A few tears slipped down her face as she glared at the garden around her.

She couldn't shake the feeling that Weiss hadn't been grabbed by a mercenary. As much as she wanted to believe Maria it seemed impossible. Blake had mentioned getting paralyzed, but when Tyrian had struck Qrow it had done far worse than paralyze him. Her uncle  _nearly died_. But Cinder was dead, even then she didn't seem like the type to take prisoners. So who was it? Who else did Salem have employed? She had been able to sway Lionheart, who's to say she didn't have other hunters and huntresses fighting for her? Doing her dirty work? But again,  _why_ take Weiss rather than kill her?

Perhaps it had been that man with Emerald and Mercury, the guy that injected himself with dust... maybe? She didn't know enough about him, except for the fact that he hated Ozpin with the fury of a thousand suns. But there was still so many other possibilities... where was she suppose to start?

"Hey," She felt a hand on her shoulder, rubbing little circles into her skin. "We'll find her-"

"But what if its too late?" A sob escaped her lips. "We're already wasting time sitting here. What if when we finally get to looking for her she's dead, Oscar? What if they're torturing her? What if-" another sob escaped her as she leaned down to rest her head in her hands, her tears quickly making them sticky.

" _Shhh_." There was pause in his movement before she felt both of his arms wrap around her. "I know I can't say anything to make you feel better, but if it helps to let out your fears, just let them out. You don't have to bottle up your emotions Ruby, you can talk to me if you need to. I'm here for you."

Ruby let her shaking hands move up from her lap to grasp at his new shirt as she turned her head to cry into his chest, body convulsing from the sobs that racked through her. His hand settled on her back, drawing those little circles again.

"We'll get everyone together in the morning and head for Atlas, okay?" She nodded her head frantically, tears staining his clothes. "We can talk on the way, try and figure out what happened once everyone's had some rest. We cane even go back to the alley beforehand and see if there's anything we missed. It should be easier to tell once the sun is up." Ruby just kept nodding her head, hoping there was a new clue they could find. Something that could ease her worries or point her in the right direction.  _Anything_  would help.

**~ / ~ / ~**

A hand tugged her forward by a new rope bound at her wrists, the other end had been lowered and used to keep her thighs bound as well, limiting her movement and forcing her to keep pace with him down the dark hall. If he tugged hard enough she would go sprawling onto the floor like the first time, no way to catch herself even with her hands infront of her now. Just the promise of meeting a cold stone floor.

He was giggling as he led her forward, muttering something to himself about how happy his Goddess would be with him. Weiss just felt an impending dread wash over her when he finally stopped at a large door, golden eyes flashing back to her before he cackled, turning back to push the door open and step inside the room.

"Milady," Tyrian did a mock bow upon entering. "I have brought you a guest."

With another tug Weiss stepped forward out of the darkness and into the light, eyes going wide at the big table in the room. That bear of a man from Haven was sitting in one of the chairs, another man she didn't recognize sat next to him. Emerald and Mercury were standing off to one side of the table, near an empty seat. Cinder's chair. But her eyes were drawn to the woman at the head of the table, Salem.

Her skin was paper white, red eyes glowing in the purple light and there were these weird black-red veins criss-crossing over her skin. Not to mention the fact she was dressed in a long black robe... she looked like a Grimm rather than a human.

The grimm woman looked back at her, gaze flickering between her and Tyrian for a moment before she  _smiled_. It sent a shiver down her spine. "So this is what Watts meant when you said you had gone to test your new tail. I was expecting a rabbit carcass when you decided to show yourself here again."

Tyrian giggled, tail for once curling more inward as he was hunched over, hands playing with the fraying edge of her rope. "Yes. Is the Goddess, pleased?' he asked, a tremor barely contained in his inquiry. That's when her heart felt like it stopped. If he was so scared of what Salem would do to him if she weren't pleased... What was this woman going to do to her if she was?

There was a moment of consideration. "I am."

Tyrian's body relaxed, he stood to his full height again, turning to her and giving another tug. Weiss stumbled forward until she was standing at his side, so Tyrian could reach forward and pull the cloth down from her mouth so it hung around her neck, but Weiss made no move to speak. "Introduce yourself to our Goddess, princess."

For a second she just stared at him in silence, only urged forward by the narrowing of his golden eyes. "W-Weiss Schnee."

"Weiss," the woman spoke slowly, "You're a companion of Miss Rose are you not?"

"Yes. We trained together at Beacon."

"Under Ozpin's supervision?" She merely gave a nod of her head, not sure where this line of questioning was suppose to lead. Or if the woman was simply being formal with her introductions. "Speak, child."

"Yes," Weiss answered, gaze flickering to Tyrian, but he was just grinning up at the woman. He really was insane, looking up to someone like her as an ethereal being. But then, Salem was immortal, it made sense to treat someone with such power as a living god.

"And how is Ozpin?"

She felt her throat clench. So that's what this was about. Her gaze flickered to the bear man. He must have told her about Ozpin finding a new body so quickly, she was trying to see if he had taken control over Oscar yet. But Weiss wouldn't be the one to quell any fears of him being back at full strength already. She kept her mouth shut.

A snort came from the unknown man. "What was the point of grabbing the girl if she isn't going to talk?"

Salem held a hand up, stopping him from speaking further. Her gaze focused back on Weiss, waiting for her answer.

Weiss swallowed down the fear in her throat, reminded again of just how parched she was. Her throat was starting to burn with all the yelling and screaming she had done, even this... simple conversation was wearing down on her. "What is this place?"

Salem merely smiled at her own question.

She tried to elaborate. "The grimm... they're born here, aren't they? Is this..." What was even the right word? The Dark God's palace? No, at the very least his shrine had to be near, but this place she was in couldn't be it. Unless she built it around the shrine, but it looked more like it was everywhere... with those black pools.

The barest ghost of a frown was on the woman's face, those red eyes seeming to look right through her. Salem stood up and Weiss took a step back, bumped forward again by Tyrian's twitching tail.

"Tyrian, see to it that our guest is well taken care of until she decides to speak."

Her gaze snapped to the man who was now grinning at her, making delighted little sounds at being given a task by his Goddess. He tugged on her rope once more, leading her back down the hall as Weiss craned her head around to look back into the room, eyes flickering over Salem, the men, and finally landing on Emerald and Mercury, who hadn't said a word or even acknowledged her existence.

Though, when her gaze met Emerald's the young woman stepped behind Mercury, using him to obscure her vision. Still, she hadn't missed the way that Emerald trembled when Tyrian had walked into the room. Just what had she signed herself up for by not hurling herself off the aircraft earlier?

Tyrian kept walking through the maze of halls, down a flight of stairs and turning a corner before he came to a stop. With a grin at her he opened the door and walked into a room. It was large, had a bed, a dresser, table, one chair, and not much else. He led her past the furniture to one of the other two doors in the room, pulling the one open at the far left, closest to the dresser.

Weiss was tugged forward, peering into the darkness until her eyes adjusted to the light. It was a closet.

His hand let go of her rope, settling on her back to push her inside, cackling as she fell to her knees. He kicked her a few times until she was forced to crawl back into the little room, whimpering at the new flashes of pain each time. "Enjoy your stay,  _darling_."

And the door closed, enveloping her in darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tell me what you think of our first real chapter in this journey. :)


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